"Though it might seem a hopeless task," he says, "to set about ventilating such districts as Bethnal Green and Whitechapel, yet, if the importance of the principle be duly appreciated and the object be kept steadily in view, much may be accomplished. In some of the worst localities in these districts, at moderate expense, means might be taken to introduce free currents of air, where at present the air is perfectly stagnant and stifling. Some of the improvements recently made in the City of London show to what extent it is possible to introduce good ventilation into the heart of the most densely populated part of the Metropolis."

He

In this Report my grandfather also draws attention to the state of the Workhouses. was writing to the Poor Law Commissioners, and so he could efficiently bring under their notice the state of those buildings.

"From what I have observed I am satisfied," he says, "that many existing workhouses are extremely deficient in space, ventilation, and drainage."

The overcrowding in the dormitories is especially pointed out. He writes:

"In going over the Whitechapel Workhouse I was struck with the statement of the fact that, out of 104 children (girls) resident in that house, 89 have recently been attacked with fever. On examining the dormitory in which these children sleep, my wonder ceased. In a room 88 feet long, 16 wide, and 7 feet high, with a sloping roof rising to 10 feet, all these 104 children, together with four women who have the charge of them, sleep. The beds are close to each other; in all the beds there are never less than four children, in many five; the ventilation of the room is most imperfect. Under such circumstances the breaking out of fever is inevitable.

"I was likewise struck with the pale and unhealthy appearance of a number of children in the Whitechapel Workhouse, in a room called the Infant Nursery.' These children appear to be from two to three years of age; they are 23 in number, they all sleep in one room, and they seldom or never go out of this room either for air or exercise. Several attempts have been made to send these infants into the country, but a majority of the Board of Guardians has hitherto succeeded in resisting the proposition.

"In the Whitechapel Workhouse there are two fever - wards: in the lower ward the beds are much too close; two fever patients are placed in each bed; the ventilation is most imperfect, and the room is so close as to be dangerous to all who enter it, as well as most injurious to the sick."

The Report mentions, in contrast, the case of the Jews' Hospital, where he had been physician. In that hospital, though at one time there had been a yearly outbreak of fever, since the number of beds in the dormitories had been reduced, and several large ventilators had been put in, the evil had entirely ceased. At the time he wrote eight years had passed since the improvements, and fever had not once returned as an epidemic.

After finishing this Report, my grandfather set to work to obtain exact statistics as to fever in other parts of London; and by the next year (1839) tables had been compiled, which proved, by a wider range of experience, the truths he had again and again brought forward. Once more he wrote a Report to the Poor Law Commissioners -of whom Mr (afterwards Sir Edwin) Chadwick

was one

pointing out the facts which were proved by these figures and the duty of acting on them.1

Such accounts as those given by the three physicians appointed by the Poor Law Board to inquire, could not pass unnoticed. The press, not only in London but in all parts of England, took up the subject. Public men began to be roused.

At first the facts were doubted. It was difficult to believe that such a dreadful state of things could exist; but attention was awakened, and inquiry followed.

The Marquis of Normanby, then Secretary of State for the Home Department, was much impressed with what he had read, but he could hardly conquer a belief that there must have been some exaggeration. My grandfather took him to see some of the places in Bethnal Green and Whitechapel which the Report had described. Lord Normanby was deeply moved, as every one must have been who was brought to realise the kind of dwellings which were all that these people had for homes. "So far," he said, "from any

1 Report on the Prevalence of Fever in Twenty Metropolitan Unions in 1838.

exaggeration having crept into the descriptions which had been given, they had not conveyed to my mind an adequate idea of the truth."

Lord Ashley, too, always in the forefront to relieve the sufferings of the poor, was taken by my grandfather on two occasions to see these regions personally; and from that time forth he became one of the most ardent supporters of the Sanitary Cause, working strenuously for it both in and out of Parliament.1 In a letter to a friend my grandfather writes:—

"FINSBURY SQUARE, 1841.

"I have just returned from Whitechapel and Bethnal Green, over which I have been taking Lord Ashley and his brother, and I think they have received an impression which will be lasting, and which will stimulate them to exert themselves for the removal of some of the evils which they have witnessed."

The Bishop of London had the honour of being the first to bring the question before Parliament.

1 For the account of what was shown to Lord Ashley on these occasions see Appendix I., p. 159.